The Atlanta Braves pitchers and catchers report to spring training Friday, the Cedartown High School baseball team has already reported to practice. In fact, the Bulldogs begin the regular season next week with four games.

The Bulldogs, who have not had a winning season since 2005, will open the season Monday at home against their Polk County rivals Rockmart at 5 p.m.

Two days later, Cedartown travels north to Chattooga to play the Indians at 5 p.m. On Thursday, the Bulldogs visit Paulding County at 5:55 p.m. and on Friday the Bulldogs travel to Rockmart for a 5 p.m. contest.

That could be a challenging week for the Bulldogs as they have not been able to practice outside much this preseason due to the weather.

“We’ve not had many days on the field for practice,” Head Coach Doyle Kelley said. “The players are ready to get outside and see live arm batting practice and be able to take infield.”

After that challenging first week, the Bulldogs will start the month of March out on a positive note as they play five straight home games.

Their home games will be March 2 (Chattooga), March 5 (Bremen), March 6 (Arabia), March 8 (Mt. Zion-Carroll) and March 10 (Paulding County).

The end of March will force the Bulldogs to put on their traveling shoes, as they are on the road for three straight. They visit Mt. Zion-Carroll (March 13), Arabia (March 20) and Ringgold (March 26).

Kelley’s team opens April on the road when they travel south to Central-Carroll on April 1.

On April 2, Cedartown hosts Ridgeland and then they are away for three consecutive games as they visit Haralson County (April 6), Cartersville (April 8) and Heritage-Catoosa (April 9).

The Bulldogs will then enjoy their last long homestand of the year as they host Carrollton (April 13), Central-Carroll (April 15) and LaFayette (April 16) in a four day span.

Cedartown will play their final non-region game on April 19 at Bremen before ending the regular season with five straight region skirmishes.

Cedartown hosts Haralson County on April 22 and visits Lakeview Fort-Oglethorpe on April 23. April 27 has Cartersville coming to Cedartown and April 29 has Kelley’s squad traveling to Carrollton.

The final regular season game of the year will be April 30, when Cedartown hosts Southeast Whitfield for Senior Night.

Members of the team this year are seniors Craig Banks, Hayden Privett, John Poulin, Daniel Williams, Drew Vann, Brent Davidson, Logan Tillery and Dylan Satterfield. The juniors are Trey Benefield, Wesley Burchfield, Randy Johnson, Avery Privett, Justin Thompson, Trevor Arrington and Britt Haney.

“I will probably dress some of the sophomores and freshmen out with the varsity but I’m not sure who that will be yet,” Kelley said.

The veteran coach did point out, however, that he was more than excited about the return of a former assistant coach.

“I am thrilled to have Coach (Chris) McKelvey back in the baseball program,” Kelley said. “He will be the junior varsity coach this spring.”